ROVERS winger Keith Gillespie hopes his star performance against Arsenal will help to persuade Graeme Souness to offer him a new deal.

The Northern Ireland international's current contract is due to expire in the summer, and so far Rovers have yet to open talks about a new one.

But Gillespie gave Souness a timely reminder of his talents with an impressive performance in Saturday's 2-0 win over the Gunners.

And he's hoping for a further chance to prove his worth between now and the end of the season as Rovers mount a late charge for Europe.

"The situation still remains the same. It's one of those things," said Gillespie.

"Nothing has been said to me about what is happening in the summer so I've just got to continue to try and prove myself and show that I'm worth a new contract.

"But I'd definitely like to stay here. I'm 100 per cent sure about that.

"I'm happy in the area, I'm at a club which is ambitious, and I feel we are improving as a team all the time."

"We've already equalled our points total for last season and we've still got eight games to go, so we are getting better all the time, the manager has built up a good squad, and everything is going really well for the club at the minute.

"In an ideal world, I would love to stay but unfortunately that decision is out of my hands."

Saturday's game against Arsenal provided Gillespie with only his 11th start of the season, although he's made a further 20 appearances from the substitutes' bench.

But, despite his frustration at not featuring more often, he insists it's down to him to prove a point to the manager.

"You want to play every week but that hasn't materialised this season," said Gillespie.

"I'm realistic enough to know that I'm going to be on the bench at times.

"In a lot of games I've actually been brought on at half-time and when that happens it's sometimes easier to get into the game, as opposed to coming on 15 minutes into the second half when it takes you time to pick the pace of it.

"So I've still played quite a few games and, ideally, I'd like to be playing every week but it's up to me to prove that I'm worth a starting place every time."

The 28-year-old certainly justified his inclusion on Saturday by capping an excellent display with a major contribution to Damien Duff's opening goal.

And now he's planning a repeat performance against Newcastle at the weekend as he prepares to face his former club at St James's.

"I was pleased with my performance against Arsenal," said Gillespie.

"It was just one of those days when I felt confident every time I picked up the ball and I was a bit surprised that Van Bronckhorst didn't get booked a bit earlier.

"But the whole team played well. I thought we worked hard and that was probably the key to it all.

"We got a goal at the right time and that gave us something to hang on to."

Souness has yet to indicate whether he will be offering Gillespie new terms or not.

But he did hint last week that his decision will not be based on what the winger does in the short term.

"I've worked with Keith for the last three years so any decision will be based on that and not just a handful of games," said the Rovers boss.

Souness has not yet made a decision on what action to take against Andy Cole.